Source:WikipediaThe Red-crested Cardinal (Paroaria coronata) is a bird species in the tanager family (Thraupidae). It was formerly placed in the Emberizidae, and notwithstanding its common name, it is not very closely related to the true cardinals (family Cardinalidae).

It is found in northern Argentina, Bolivia, southern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and heavily degraded former forest. Among other regions, it is found in southern part of the Pantanal.

It has also been introduced to Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

That is an absolutely beautiful bird! He seems to be missing his feet though! Really gorgeous bird!

Krob78, Mr. Otter, Barrfly, digital paradise and all you other photogs....very beautiful and inspiring shots. Looking at your work keeps me interested in pursuing this hobby and trying to make photographs like you can

Some I took at dusk today in my yard. This young heron has been coming around for about a month when I feed the fish in the canal, but he was never able to catch a fish in several dozen tries....until now. This tilapia was large and it took him several minutes to finally swallow.

Taken with a 7D and 100-400mm L @ 400mm. Almost dusk and was very overcast (started to rain as I took the last shot), so I used a 580 on camera flash with a better beamer. I am a total noob when it comes to flash since I never use it and haven't yet learned. I think these were overexposed and so I had to try and fix it with DPP. Constructive advice welcome. Thanks.

Thank you for your kind words...

They're beautiful images Serendipity! If they were all overexposed, you pulled them back in pretty well in DPP. #2 still shows some overexposure, the others pulled back nicely. I think you may find that you could get substantially better results pulling exposure back in LR4 or LR5. There are a few more options to do so with. Not just exposure, but you can use the slider or the brush for highlights, whites or exposure... Just my opinion, I use both but use dpp very little the last 3 years.

If you decide to purchase LR, there are some excellent tutorials online either at the adobe website or scott kelby training vids... both great resources. You can learn LR quite fast... it's not nearly as much a learning curve as CS5 or CS6 which are also excellent in concert with LR...

Krob78, Mr. Otter, Barrfly, digital paradise and all you other photogs....very beautiful and inspiring shots. Looking at your work keeps me interested in pursuing this hobby and trying to make photographs like you can

Some I took at dusk today in my yard. This young heron has been coming around for about a month when I feed the fish in the canal, but he was never able to catch a fish in several dozen tries....until now. This tilapia was large and it took him several minutes to finally swallow.

Taken with a 7D and 100-400mm L @ 400mm. Almost dusk and was very overcast (started to rain as I took the last shot), so I used a 580 on camera flash with a better beamer. I am a total noob when it comes to flash since I never use it and haven't yet learned. I think these were overexposed and so I had to try and fix it with DPP. Constructive advice welcome. Thanks.

Must feel really strange having a fish flopping around in your belly...

Thanks Ken for your helpful critique and advice. I hopefully will get LR4 or 5 soon and learn how to do better PP. I guess I was too close to that cardinal with 400mm and should have zoomed out a little. My wife said exactly the same thing when I showed her the photo ("I want to see his feet"). That tilapia has very sharp dorsal spines. The heron was extremely slow and careful to swallow it head first. I was thinking there goes his stomach.

Moorhen showing off her plumage. Brazilian cardinal model will work for bread crumbs, but they have no feet Wasted half a loaf of bread (the fish enjoyed it) and this heron still couldn't catch any fish in over 100 attempts